Hayley O’Keeffe

Farage in town to support parliamentary candidate Chris Adams and to open party HQ in Weston Turville

Said that David Lidington should resign from ministerial role over HS2

Blamed immigration for the need for house building in Buckinghamshire

UKIP rolled into town this morning as party leader Nigel Farage paid a special visit to local supporters.

Mr Farage, whose party has selected candidate Chris Adams to stand against Conservative MP David Lidington in Aylesbury, arrived in Weston Turville for the official opening of the party’s Aylesbury Vale HQ.

The leader then travelled with UKIP councillor Phil Yerby to see Hampden Fields, where an inspector recently overturned plans for 3,000 homes.

He also made a stop at Stoke Mandeville to see how the area will be affected by HS2.

He was heard to say, ‘Jimmy Savile and now HS2, Stoke Mandeville has had it all!’

Mr Farage’s tour ended in Wendover, where he spoke to anti HS2 campaigners, and unveiled a giant billboard which states the party’s objection to the rail scheme.

Speaking to the Bucks Herald Mr Farage said: “I’m here not just to support Chris Adam’s campaign but also the campaign across Buckinghamshire which we are fighting not just at the parliamentary elections, but also very seriously at a local level too.

“It’s a county in which we have had some considerable success on the county council, some considerable success on some of the district councils so we have got a record that we have been building up.

“We know it’s a very blue county and we know that in this constituency Mr Lidington has a very big majority, however there are some very big issues that I think voters are going to think about before they vote on May 7.

“The first is HS2, and we are the only party that is completely opposed to HS2 and we have been from day one, not just because it spoils Buckinghamshire – that’s important – but because the economics of it don’t make any sense to us at all.

Lidington can’t ride both horses at once

Nigel Farage

“The other issue in Buckinghamshire is proposed house building on an absolutely gargantuan scale. Why? Because the population’s going through the roof, and why is the population going through the roof? Because we have an open door immigration policy.

“We have to build a new house every seven minutes in Britain just to accommodate current migratory flows in the country, so we would say on those two really big issues that affect substantial parts of Buckinghamshire, we are giving people an option that is very different to the other three.”

And Mr Farage had a few words for Mr Lidington, who as minister for Europe has abstained from voting on HS2.

He said: “David Lidington has been famously the Europe minister amongst other things. If he were here today I would say that if he really wanted to represent his constituents he should have resigned over HS2 and should not have continued as a minister in the government.

Nigel Farage and Chris Adams

“I think if he had done that people would respect him enormously but he chose not to do that and you can’t ride both horses at once.

“So he is standing here, as the minister, as the MP that has effectively supported large scale house building and HS2, so that’s the battle and we are the opposition.

“It’s perfectly clear that the only party that can challenge David Lidington is UKIP and we have a candidate that’s not just local, but has a record on the local council so we know we are going to fight a big strong campaign.”

And when asked how Aylesbury would benefit if Mr Farage made it to Number Ten Downing Street he said; “Well number one we wouldn’t have HS2, it wouldn’t have huge house building.

“The people who live in Aylesbury who find themselves in jobs that don’t pay very much money, and where it’s probably quite marginal in some cases whether they are better off on benefits or being at work, would definitely benefit from the idea that we would not have anybody earning minimum wage paying taxation.

“And if at the same time we are able to control the amount of unskilled labour that is coming into Britain what you would see actually is wage values rise.

Nigel Farage at the new local UKIP HQ in Weston Turville, being interviewed by the Herald's Hayley O'Keeffe

“So what we are saying is that everything we’ve done, with open door migration, with our European entanglement has been very, very good if you are a wealthy member of this society, but for those lower down the economic spectrum it has been ten very tough years.